Marriage and Morals in Utah

Burring* aiift Mmh in f tojj,

w» -^ .11

AN ADDRESS WRITTEN BY ^ SC "

PARLEY. P. PRATT,

On* / M* 2W«* Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Chaplain
to the Council of the Utah Legislature,

READ IN JOINT SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE, IN THE
REPRESENTATIVES' HALL, FILLMORE CITY, DEC. 31, 1855,

MK. THOMAS BULLOCK,

Chief Clerk of the House.
REPRINTED FROM THE " DESERET NEWS."

LIVERPOOL :
ORSON PRATT, 42, ISLINGTON;

LONDON :
L. D. S. BOOK Sr STAR DEPOT, 35, JEWIN ST., CITY.

1856.

I

MARRIAGE AND MORALS IN UTAH.

Mit. President and Gentlemen : —

At the opening* of the present session of our annual Legislature I had the honour of
being unanimously chosen Chaplain of the Council.

I was then and there laid under a solemn oath to faithfully perform the duties of this
high and holy calling to the best of my abilities, and was also solemnly charged by the
honorable President, Mr. Kimball, not merely to be fervent in prayer during the
session, but also to contribute my mite in moulding the moral and social institutions of
our common country.

In accordance with these sacred responsibilities placed upon me, I have, with some
pains, prepared this address, which I am extremely happy in having the privilege of
laying before you ; not merely, or principally for your sakes ; but for the sake of the
people of our Territory — our nation, and the world.

As our young and rising Territory is about preparing to enter upon her sovereignty
as a free and independent republic, and to assume her place amid the family of American
States, it becomes her citizens, and especially those engaged in founding her insti-
tutions, to purify themselves and to come together with pure hearts and clean hands ;
and clothed with light as with a garment, lay a constitutional foundation, and make or
adopt such laws as will tend to purify and exalt the people, — establish righteousness
and peace, and multiply and perpetuate a nation of freemen in the highest degree of
moral, intellectual and physical development.

No time-serving, or mere temporary policy should enter, into our composition, or
influence us for one moment. We act, not merely or principally for ourselves or the
living age ; but for untold millions of posterity, and for ages yet unborn ; who doubtless
will be influenced by our institutions, and mould their morals, manners, precepts, and
even their consciences more or less after the pattern we set them.

A wholesome moral atmosphere, and a conscience purified and enlightened by the
Spirit of Truth are indispensably necessary to a permanent national growth, and to the
strength and perpetuity of institutions.

The All-wise Creator, the God of Nature, has implanted in the human heart certain
affections, which, under proper culture and direction, give rise to family ties : hence
the necessity and importance of the moral and social relations and the institutions for
their proper direction and government,

"Pis nature's universal law, and the just and great commandment with blessing ; that
each and every species should multiply and fill the measure of its creation. Hence
the growth of families, — the germs of nations: — and hence, as we before observed, the
necessity of laws founded in wisdom, to guard, as it were, the fountain and issues
of life.

In short — moral and social affections and institutions are the very foundation of all
government, whether of family, church or state. If these are perverted, or founded
in error, the whole superstructure is radically wrong, and will contain within itself
the seeds of its own decay and dissolution. These facts are not only self-evident, hut
are according to all experience : — being exemplified in the decadence and dissolution
of nations and empires of old; as well as in the general weakness and corruption so
characteristic of men and things in more modern times.

The Prophet Isaiah, in looking through the vista of long distant years, at length
beholds the vision of modern " Christendom," or of the corruptions growing out of
Roman sway. He exclaims: Isa. 24, 5, " The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants
thereof ; because they have transgressed the laws ; changed the ordinance, broken the
everlasting covenant."

AVe here enquire: What laws were transgressed? What ordinance was changed?
and what everlasting covenant was broken — the effect of which would defile the
very earth under its inhabitants ? This leads us back, in our researches, to the earliest
institutions, laws, ordinances, covenants, and precedents or record touching marriage
and the moral and social relations.

MAURI AGE AND MOItALS IN UTAIT. 3

If we find laws, statutes, covenants and precedents emanating from God ; sworn
to by himself to Ijo everlasting; as a Messing to all nations :— if we find these havo
to do with exceeding multiplicity of the race, and with family and national orga-
nization and increase: — if such institutions are older than Moses, and arc found
perpetuated and unimpaired by Moses, and the prophets — Jesus and the Apostles,
then it will appear evident, that they were intended to he perpetual : and that no
merely human legislation or authority, whether proceeding from emperor, king, or
people has a right to change, alter, or pervert them.

It will then remain to he shown by whom these institutions were changed or
perverted : the direful effect of such change upon the nations ; and the only course
left for those who would survive the crash of nations and the wreck of worlds.

Our object, gentlemen, is to urge upon the statesmen and people of; at least
one stato or government of our earth to avoid the rock and quicksands on which
so many have made shipwreck — to restore the laws, the ordinance, and the ever-
lasting covenant of our God ; that her citizens may be purified and preserved by
the same; and her institutions, being founded in truth, may be perpetuated for
ever.

I beseech, therefore, honorable gentlemen to hear me patiently. Abraham, the
friend of God, lived in Asia upwards of four hundred years before the law of Moses was
written on tables of stone, or thundered from Mount Sinai. To this man God gave
laws, commandments, statutes, and judgments in an everlasting covenant. lie said unto
him: Genesis 12th, verse 2nd, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless
thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shaltbc a blessing : and I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curscth thee ; and in thee shall all the families of the earth
be blessed."

And again : Genesis 17th chap., verses 1st to 8th: "And when Abram was ninety
years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him : I am the
Almighty God : walk before me and be thou perfect, and I will make my covenant
between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his
face : and God talked with him saying, as for me, behold my covenant is with thee, and
thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called
Abram ; but thy name shall be Abraham ; for a father of many nations have I made
thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and
kings shall come out of thee, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee and
thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto
thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee,
the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting posses-
sion ; and I will be their God."

In the foregoing promises it is evident that there is an everlasting covenant, touching
multiplicity of our species, government-making, or the raising up of families and
nations, and their exceeding prosperity and increase: — a covenant everlasting and
unchangeable in which all nations should be blessed, if they were ever blessed at all.

In connection with this covenant we have reason to believe that God would reveal
laws, statutes, and institutions which would be productive of the greatest possible
increase of a wise, healthy, and virtuous posterity.

In the precedents recorded of Abraham and his posterity two principles arc con-
spicuous as being subservient to the carrying out of these ends: viz.: — First: — A
plurality of wives : — Secondly: — An entire prohibition of all sexual intercourse except
upon the principle of marriage : — a breach of which was considered a capital offence,
punishable with death. God provided Abraham with Sarah, llagar, Kctnrah, and
several other wives not named. Uy this means he became the father of many nations,
and his seed was multiplied exceedingly.

God also gave to Jacob, Abraham's grandson, four wives : — viz. : Leah, Rachel,
Uilhah, and Zilpha; by which means he became the father of twelve tribes. The
history ofthe.se things is so conspicuous in the Hook of Genesis that we need not quote
chapter and verse.

Now alter Abraham had obtained all these wives, and had raised up children by
them, the Lord bears testimony in the 2<>tli chapter of Genesis, verse 5th, saying :-
" Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and
my laws." Here then, we have demonstration that a man living four hundred years
before the law of Moses was given, had statutes, commandments, and laws given him of
God ; and that he kept them.

These laws evidently included polygamy or plurality of wives, from the fact that he
had them, as a means of carrying out the promise of exceeding multiplicity. Here

4 MARRIAGE AND MORALS IN UTAH.

then, the matter is Bet for ever at rest, that polygamy is included in the ordinance of
marriage, and in the everlasting covenant and laws of God : and that, under proper
regulations, it is an institution holy, just, virtuous, pure, and, in the estimation of God,
abundantly calculated to bless, preserve, and multiply a nation.

Hence the laws of some of our States, which recognize polygamy as a crime, are at
once both unscriptural, and unconstitutional, as well as immoral. Common law in
England, and in the United States, recognizes the Bible as the very foundation of all
moral and criminal jurisprudence: and the Constitution of the United States, and of
each State guarantees the liberty of, at least an enlightened conscience, founded on the
moral law of God as found in that Holy Book. Hence, should an individual, or a
community, in all good faith regulate their marriages by the laws of God as given to
Abraham, no State law Can harm them while the civil courts are bound to abide that
holy and sacred guarantee of the Constitution : viz. : "Liberty of conscience."

Having demonstrated the fact of an everlasting covenant made with Abraham and
his seed, including plural marriage, and certain laws designed to multiply and bless
many nations, and to be a blessing to all the families of the earth, we will now enquire
after the penal laws touching morality, or the intercourse of the sexes.

The first intimation we will notice on this subject is found in Genesis 20th chapter :
as follows : — " And Abraham journeyed from thence towards the south country and
dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah
his wife, she is my sister : and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. But
God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, behold thou art but a
dead man for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. But
Abimelech had not come near her : and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous
nation? Said he not unto me, she is my sister? and she, even she herself, said, he is
my brother : in the integrity of my heart, and the innocency of my hands have
I clone this.

And God said unto him in a dream, yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity
of thy heart : for I also withheld thee from sinning against me : therefore suffered I
thee not to touch her. Now therefore, restore the man his wife ; for he is prophet, and
he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live : but if thou restore her not, know thou that
thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine." Here we have the law of God
revealed by his own mouth about four hundred years before the law of Moses was
given : making death the penalty of adultery.

This penal law then, was part and parcel of the laws, statutes and covenants under
which Abraham and his neighbours lived, and it seems to have been an ancient
and general law handed down by the fathers, to which Abimelech was no stranger ;
he did not plead his ignorance of the law, but the innocency of his intentions, and
Ms ignorance of the true circumstances.

Again, Genesis, chapter 34 : Records a case of fornication, committed by Shechem
the son of Hamon, the Hivite, prince of the country, with Dinah, the daughter of
Jacob, the grandson of Abraham ; and how punished. Two of the sons of Jacob,
viz. : Simeon and Levi, took their swords and slew this fornicator and all the men
about him, who had been accessory to the seduction of their sister, or who had
consented thereto : and they took their goods for a spoil. They may in this case
have superseded the bounds of the law ; but still it goes to show with what abhor-
rence these sons of a chaste and plural mairiage held the crime of fornication.

"We will now enquire whether the law of Moses, or the gospel ever changed the
covenant of Abraham, or disannulled the law of marriage, or the penalty of death
affixed to adultery and fornication.

For this purpose we shall trace the subject down through the different ages and
dispensations, bringing a few instances out of many, illustrative of the subject.
But first of all we will take the direct testimony of the Apostle Paul, found in
Galatians, 3rd chapter, and 17th and 18th verses inclusive, which read thus: —
" That the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ ;
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; though it be but a man's covenant
yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth it, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made, he saith not, and to seeds, as of many ; but
as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, — the law (of Moses) which was four
hundred and thirty years, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none
effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, (of Moses), it is no more of promise ;
but God gave it to Abraham by promise."

MARK I AGE AND MORALS IN UTAH.

Again,— verse 20th, Paul says to the gentiles:— "If ye be Christ's, then arc ye
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to tho promise." Here we have the most direct
and positive testimony, in the New Testament, that the covenant and promise made to
Abraham were intended for all time, and for the believing gentiles, and all true Christian
people ; uad that they were entirely distinct from the law of Moses, and were never
disannulled, or changed, either by Moses or Christ. Hence we affirm that the law of
plural marriage, and death as a penalty of adultery and fornication, has been in force
through all time, and through every dispensation, from Abraham till the present : and
that of right it should be of force among all trnly Christian nations :— that the carrying
out of these holy laws in righteousness would greatly multiply and bless a nation; —
and that the breach, or chauge of them, would corrupt the world, and defile the very
earth with abominations.

Uut, let us now come to historical illustrations. Tn the 25th chapter of Numbers wc
have an account of Zimri, a prince in Israel who committed fornication with Coshi, the
daughter of Zur, a prince of Midian : and how Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, the
priest, took a javelin and thrust them both through the body, and slew them : and how
the Lord staid the plague on account of this act; and rewarded Phinehas with an
everlasting covenant of priesthood, for his zeal in thus punishing the crime of
fornication. . ,

'We should remember too that Moses, who was himself a polygamist, both in
practice and as a legislator, was the prophet and legislator, under whose adminis-
tration this crime was thus severely punished.

In the first book of Samuel, chapter 1st, wc find an account of Elkanah, and his two
wives, Hannah and Pcninnah ; and of Samuel, the son of this pluralist, who was a pro-
mised child, devoted to the service of God and brought up in the holy temple. To this
child came the word of the Lord against the house of Eli the priest, saying : (1st Samuel,
3rd chapter — verses 11th and 14th.)

" Behold I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every onc ". iat heareth
it shall tingle. In that day will I perform against Eli all the things w hmh * have
^oken concerning his house : where I begin I will also make an end. l 4 ° r I have told
him that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knowe 1 ' 1 J because his
sons make themselves vile, and he restraineth them not. Therefore I ha ve sworn unto
the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged wit u sacrifice nor
offering for ever."

Here seems to be certain sins which the ordinances of remission could n ever cleanse.
God swore that neither sacrifice nor offering should ever atone for them. What were
these sins committed by the sons of Eli? The answer is found in the 2nd c' m P; ° f* st
Samuel. They, as priests, robbed the sacrifices, and committed whoredoms Wltn tne
women who came to the tabernacle: — this they did repeatedly and would no^ re pent.
In the 4th chapter of said book, we find the record of the fulfilment of the wor^s of ihe
young child, Samuel. Israel was worsted in a battle with the Philistines; " ie j wo
priests, the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain : the sacred ark whi c 'J tuev J
bore was taken by the enemy ; their father Eli, on hearing the news, fell backwa™' ant *
his neck brake; and Phinehas' wife died on hearing the same news. Here wc have a
most striking example and illustration of God's blessing on plural marriage, and of nls
curse and death, attendant on adultery and fornication.

Samuel the son of Elkanah, the polygamist was blessed as a holy prophet, to denounce
death upon adulterers.

Wc next will notice a case of adultery committed by David, king of Israel, and
how punished. 2nd Samuel, chap. 12 — verses 7 to 14 — "And Nathan said to David :
— Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: — I anointed thee king
over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul ; and I gave thee thy
master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of
Israel and of Judah ; and if that had been too little, I would, moreover have given
unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment
of the Lord to do evil in his sight ? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the
sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain hiin with the sword of
the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine
house; because thou hast despised mo, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to
be thy wife.

Thus saith the Lord, behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,
and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and ho
shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly : but I will
do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan : — I

6 MARRIAGE AND MORALS IN UTAH.

have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put
away thy sin ; thou shalt not die, Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given
great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto
thee shall surely die."

Here again we find death the penalty of adultery ; but in this instance God in his
mercy spared his life because it was a first offence, and because he sincerely repented.
But he punished him very severely, in the death of his child, — in taking his wives from
him, and in denouncing rebellion and war in his own house.

In this instance as in all the former cases the same God who punishes adulterers with
such severity declares in favor of polygamy, and expressly reveals the fact that he him-
self gave into David's bosom the wives of his master, Saul.

These few instances drawn from the Old Testament must suffice to show that Moses
and the prophets did not alter the law of marriage, or the penal laws against adultery,
etc., as existing in the everlasting covenant made with Abraham.

We next enquire whether Jesus Christ or his Apostles ever altered or abolished these
laws. John, chap. 8 — verses 3 to 7, reads thus : — " And the scribes and pharisees
brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst,
they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now
Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned ; but what sayest thou ? This
they said) tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down
and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they
continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them : He that is without sin
among you let him first cast a stone at her." If Jesus had wished to abolish or alter
this item of the law, this was a timely opportunity — a point in hand : but so far from
this, he ordered the woman to be immediately stoned, provided there was one virtuous
man among all her accusers who was himself so pure as to be worthy to execute the
law; but as none were found in that age of degeneracy, she went unpunished ; but was
strictly admonished to sin no more.

Again : — 1st Corinthians — chap. 5th, verse 5th. The Apostle Paul in reference to
a person in the church who had committed fornieation, exhorted the saints : — " to de-
liver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

This destruction of the flesh must have had reference to the death of the body ;
the man having justly forfeited his life, in accordance with the law of God. And
the spirit being saved in the daj^ of the Lord Jesus, must have had an allusion to
the great day of his sceond coming: thus showing that the fornicator, under the
light of the gospel, had forfeited his life in this world, and his salvation in the world
to come, for at least eighteen hundred years.

Thus, under all dispensations; whether Patriarchal, Mosaic, or Christian, the
penalty annexed to unlawful sexual intercourse appears to be the same : growing
out of a fixed and unchanged law of God ; — a wise provision : — a bright cherub with
a flaming sword, as it were, to guard the chaste and sacred fountain or issues of
life.

It is true Jesus Christ and his Apostles, so far as their writings have come to us,
have not dwelt on practical plurality in their own age, for the best of all reasons,
Judea was then a Roman province, under Roman laws, which were opposed to
polygamy. On this account the Jews had greatly degenerated ; they had corrupted
their way and perverted the pure institutions of their more virtuous fathers. Hence
John the baptist and Jesus Christ reproved them sharply, calling them a generation
of vipers — " an evil and adulterous generation, who had made void the law of God
by their traditions." But one thing is certain — Jesus Christ and his Apostles al-
ways approved of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob and the holy prophets of old ; — bore
testimony of their virtue and faithfulness, and represented them as honorable fathers of
the faithful, and members or rulers in the kingdom of God.

Jesus said on one occasion to the Jews ; — "If ye were Abraham's seed ye would
do the works of Abraham." On another occasion he said; — "Many shall come
from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south and shall
sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God : but yc shall be
thrust out." See Luke 13th chap. — verses 28 — 29.

Paul and the apostles exhorted the saints to be like Abraham, the father of the
faithful, whose children they were through the gospel: and if children then heirs to
the same covenants of promise.

Now we have already shown that the promises made to Abraham, to which the New
Testament saints were heirs, included exceeding multiplicity of children, and conse-

MAltKIAGE AND MORALS IN UTAH. 7

qucntly of wives, as the means of carrying oat tho same. But, lest any might mistake
this point of the covenant and promises, Jesus Christ himself has set it for ever at rest.
Ho said : — Luke 18th chap.— verses 29 — 30. " Verily I say unto you there is no man
that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of
God's sake, who shall not receive many fold more in this present time, and in tho
world to come, life everlasting."

Men, brethren, and fathers ; — In this review wo have proved : —
First : — An everlasting covenant made with Abraham, in which all nations should
be blessed :

Secondly : — That ono main feature of this covenant pertained to tho exceeding great
multiplicity of our species, and to the organization, perpetuity and growth of families,
nations and kingdoms : —

Thirdly: — That God, being the best judge of the means of multiplying, appointed a
plurality of wives, for good and holy men, as a principal means of multiplying their
seed, and forbade on uain of death, all sexual intercourse, except that sanctioned by
the holy laws of marriage : —

Fourthly : — That tho covenant and laws pertaining to marriage and virtue, or tho
moral and social relations of the sexes, as held by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were
never altered or disannulled cither by Moses or the prophets, Jesus Christ or the
Apostles; consequently that this covenant, and the laws, penalties, and promises there-
unto pertaining, are, or by right ought to be, still of force.

Fifthly : — That all nations were to be blessed in these covenants and institutions ; and
that the gentiles were to become fellow heirs of the same by the gospel ; through which
they became the seed of Abraham : —

And, sixthly: — That to transgress these holy laws, change this ordinance, or break
this everlasting covenant, would, according to Isaiah the prophet, " defile the very
earth, under the inhabitants thereof." YVc next enquire : — What power has been
guilty of such innovations ? " Who has transgressed the laws, — changed the ordinance,
—broken the everlasting covenant ?"

This we charge home upon Rome. She is the " fourth beast " of Daniel's vision : —
11 She ruled the earth as with a rod of iron :" — She made war with the saints and over-
came them :" — She changed the laws and institutions of both Jews and Christians ; —
by her sorceries were all nations deceived ;— She, in short, is " Mystery, Babylon the
Great,— the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth :" — She licensed whoredoms ;
but forbade to marry ; allowing to none of her citizens but one wife, aud to many of
them, viz., the clergy, none at all.

Every so-called Christian nation, including even Protestant England and the
American States, has retained, at least, this one trait of her superstitions and abomi-
nations. They have either permitted or licensed whoredoms ; and strictly prohibited
a plurality of wives. They have punished lightly, or not at all, that which was,
under all dispensations, by the law of God considered a capital offence — a crime
unto death : and have made a crime, and annexed a heavy penalty to that which,
according to the Bible, was never recoguized as a crime at all, either by God,
Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, angels, prophets, or apostles. Yea, — fellow citizens,
the laws of some of our States, 1 am ashamed to tell it, would recognize as illegi-
timate the children of Abraham and Jacob ; would take from them their wives ;
thus tearing asunuer what God hath joined together; and would doom those holy
patriarchs, themselves, to hard labor and solitary confinement within the walls of a
prison for years ; and then suffer their wives and children to be prostituted with
impunity : — aud then, as if to crown the climax of inconsistency, such an order of
things, taken together, would be called " Virtue," and such institutions be dignified
by the name of " Christianity." Such institutions have filled " Christendom with
whoredoms, her cities with abominations, and the world with disease and rottenness ;
till the words of Isaiah have been fulfilled: — "The earth is defiled under the inhabitants
thereof."

For instance, look at Paris, the capital of Christian France ; one third of the children
born there are said to be illegitimate, according to their own laws. Look at the
capital of Austria, another so-called Christian power : ono half of her children are said
to be illegitimate.

Look at the census of Europe, and even of our older States of this Union — see the
hundreds of thousands of females more than of males. All this surplus of immortal
beings are doomed by the Romish law, prohibiting polygamy, to live single, and to
never form those ties which would enable them lawfully and honorably to answer tho
" end" of their creation as wives and mothers Nor is this all : under the present

8 MARRIAGE AND MORALS IN UTAH.

institutions men are trained to feel little or no obligation to marry; many of them
choose to live single. This increases the number of females doomed to single life.
Nor does the mischief end here; the present wars in Europe, alone, hare deprived the
world of perhaps half a million of men in the vigour of life — candidates for the sacred
offices of husband and father : by which means the same number of females are, by the
monogamic law, added to the prohibited list. All the surplus female population arising
from these and other causes are, by the one wife system, utterly prohibited marriage •.
and thus compelled to break the first and great command of God, viz. : — " Be fruitful ,
and multiply."

Thus the laws of modern " Christendom," borrowed from Rome, have overwhelmed
the nations with the grossest immoralities, — with sin, and sorrow, and tears, and
wretched loneliness and widowhood. The widows mourn having no husbands ; — the
virgins mourn, having no bride- groom s ; children mourn, having no protectors; and
families and nations mourn, having no confidence in themselves or each other.
Virtue and confidence have fled ; mercy weeps tears of blood ; charity itself falters —
and is ready to yield to the cries of justice for vengeance on the earth.

What then, shall the righteous do ? We reply : — Restore the law of God, — the
new and everlasting covenant. Let every good citizen of both sexes marry at a
proper age : bless them and say : — " Be fruitful and multiply." Make death the
penalty for fornication and adultery: — thus throwing a shield around our families
and sacred domestic institutions. Let the monogamic law, restricting a man to one
wife, with all its attendant train of whoredoms, intrigues, seductions, wretched and
lonely single life, hatred, envy, jealousy, infanticide, illegitimacy, disease and death,
like the millstone cast into the depths of the sea — sink with Great Babylon to rise
no more. Let every man and woman be virtuous, pure, holy — filling the measure
of their creation. And let us go to, and fill these mountains ; the States, North
and South America ; the earth ; and an endless succession of worlds with a holy,
virtuous and highly intellectual seed : — whose hearts shall delight in the law of God.

Let our sons become the sons of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, and obedience to
the gospel ; let his law be indelibly engraven on the tablet of their hearts : let them be
early indoctrinated in every principle of virtue and honor ; that each may be a conser-
vatory of chastity, and wield a savory influence in every circle cf his acquaintance. Let
them learn to respect themselves as sons of God : and the other sex as sisters, — daughters
of the Highest,— holy vessels, eternal beings, destined as companions and co-workers in
the great science of life. Let them be taught to aspire, by every principle of honor and
integrity, to the patriarchal throne, as heads of families and saviors of men.

Let our daughters also obey the ordinances of God, and receive and cultivate the
gift of the Holy Ghost, in every good and pure affection : — Let them early understand
the true relationship they are destined to sustain to the other sex :— Let them be taught
to respect them as brothers, worthy of their confidence and affection — worthy to become
their savior and head, as Christ is the head of the Church. Let them be taught to
respect and revere themselves, as holy vessels, destined to sustain and magnify the
eternal and sacred relationship of wife and mother : — to be the ornament and glory of
man ; and to share with him a never fading crown, and an eternally increasing dominion.

In short, let us educate our sons and daughters in all that is holy, and true, and
virtuous, and pure, and lovely, and of good report : let us gradually and carefully de-
velop in them the true affections and attributes of their nature ; let us cultivate every
intellectual and moral sense and faculty within them, and lead them gently onward in
the great science of life and exaltation ; — that, when time shall be no more, we may
rejoice with the untold millions of our posterity in the eternal mansions.

Printed by J, Sadler, 1, Moorfields, Liverpool.